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With a lineage in telecommunications wholesale aggregation, Continuum Communications is looking forward to integrating directly with the National Broadband Network (NBN) as soon as possible.

Continuum has spawned from a merger between buroserv, a company that provided wholesale services from large telco players to resellers, and VoIP provider, ISPhone.

The new company will be providing voice and data solutions through high-speed broadband services including ADSL2+ from Telstra and Optus as well as fixed-wireless services through BigAir.

Continuum managing director, Lakshman Mawalagedera, flagged hosted cloud services and applications as a way forward for the telco but with the NBN on the horizon, the company is looking forward to expanding through the impending fibre network.

Mawalagendera was the managing director of buroserv before the merger and had previously the chief operations officer (COO) at the now defunct IT reseller, Commander, until 2007.

“Hosted cloud service applications is where the telecommunications industry is heading towards,” he said. “There are huge opportunities in that space as the NBN emerges.”

Having been in the wholesale aggregation business for many years, Mawalagedera wants to carry on buroserv’s legacy through the NBN.

Larger telcos such as Optus and AAPT have also voiced intentions of becoming an independent NBN wholesale aggregator.

“We already have customer management systems as well as OSS/BSS (business support systems) in place so we have the capability to actually provide aggregated service access through the NBN to our channel partners,” Mawalagedera said. “On top of that access, we will be able to provide existing applications such as IP telephony and IPTV from content providers.”

Ideally Continuum would be directly integrated with the NBN but it all depends on which road would be the fastest in terms of go-to-market.

“Whether we integrate into one of the bigger players or with NBN depends on how long the queue is to get us there,” Mawalagedera said. “It would be great to integrate with NBN directly. We already do that with the big players like Telstra and Optus so I don’t see why we can’t do it with the NBN.”

Ultimately, it all depends on NBN Co’s final terms and conditions of becoming a wholesale aggregator on the $36 billion network.

But having a history entrenched in telecommunications service aggregation does mean Continuum is one step ahead of its would-be competitors when it comes to working with the NBN, according to Mawalagedera.

“We know the pitfalls of wholesale aggregation because we have been there and done that,” he said. “So we might be able to set up some of the things newer players would find difficulty in doing.

“Also, there are formal technical compliances one needs to actual conform and integrate with the bigger guys.”

Continuum currently has 15 staff and is based in Crows Nest, ISPhone’s old headquarters.

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